Secret Garden (clover woodcut)

“Secret Garden” is a view of clover near my Kansas City home, shot with my iPhone while walking Daisy, our dog.

I still have this unreasonable urge to print more and more intensely complex images, but these dozen blocks, though not huge, took an average of around 20 hours each to carve (the longest carving run was a day and a half of continuous machining)! It took almost three weeks to carve all twelve blocks, and then three exhausting days to print the edition.

Printed August 7-9, 2017 using the recently upgraded paper delivery system on my big homemade press from a dozen 48 x 48 x 1/2-inch baltic birch plywood blocks.

I really like this kind of design – where the eye wants to move around and around seeking some ‘center of attention’ – something like a visual sutra-chant. The deep indigo coloration makes it feel energized and mysterious and deep. Like floating, floating, floating over coral or anemone. Satisfying and awesome.

Collections & Exhibitions:

• Permanent Collection: Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, KS
• 2022 Feb 26 – Aug 7 The International Block Print Renaissance, Then and Now—1922–2022, Block Print Exhibitions in Wichita, Kansas at Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, KS
• 2019 Apr 1 – 30 Mike Lyon: Post-Digital Drawing and Painting, Weinberger Drawing Room, Kansas City, MO
• 2017 Jan 17-Apr 16, The XY Zs of Post-Digital Gesture: Drawings & Prints by Mike Lyon, Salina Art Center, Salina, KS
• 2019 May 1 – Jul 28 “Breaking Boundaries” international mokuhanga artists at Walla Walla Foundry Gallery, Walla Walla, WA
• 2018 Jan 3  Mokuhanga: Impressions Past and Present Crowell and West Galleries at Union College, Schenectady, NY
• 2017 Oct – Nov Globalizing Mokuhanga, Studio 7 Fine Arts, Holualoa, HI